There are more than 2,000 missile sites spread across the United States.
At Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, there are twenty Launch Control
Facilities (LCF) housing Minuteman missiles underground. The Minuteman
sites are alphabetically coded, such as "L-1," "K-1," "E-1," and the like,
and are distributed over a wide area. One of these sites, K-7, which is
located in the Judith Gap region just south of Lewiston, Montana, was the
scene of an event which caused a major stir for the United states Air Force.

On November 7, remote electronic sensors triggered an alarm indicating
that something was violating site security. Underground, in the launch
control area, two officers noted the signal, but there was no television
surveillance topside. The normal procedure for detecting what had violated
security was to call for a missile security helicopter to check the area.
At the same time, Sabotage Alert Teams (SAT), consisting of four to six
men, were also alerted to the fact that a violation was taking place and
were ordered to proceed to the site. On this occasion, an SAT team drove
down the highway and onto a dirt road which led to the K-7 area. About
a mile away, the team could see an orange, glowing object over the area.
As they closed to within half a mile, they could now see that the object
was tremendous in size. They radioed to the Launch Control Facility that,
from their location, they were viewing a brightly glowing, orange, football
field-sized disc that illuminated the missile site. The SAT team was ordered
by the launch control people to proceed into the K-7 site. However, they
responded that they refused to go any farther, clearly fearful of the intimidating
appearance of the object. It began to rise, and at about 1,000 feet, NORAD
picked up the UFO on radar. Two F-106 jet interceptors were launched from
Great Falls, Montana, and headed toward the K-7 area. The UFO continued
to rise. At about 200,000 feet, it disappeared from NORAD's radar. The
F-106's were never able to get a visual sighting of the UFO.

All members of the SAT team were directed to the base hospital, where
they were psychologically tested. It was determined that no one could identify
the object that was seen, but that the members of the SAT team obviously
had been through a traumatic experience. Meanwhile, targeting teams, along
with computer specialists, were brought to the missile site to check out
the missile, and specifically, the computer in the warhead that targets
the missile. Amazingly, when the computer was checked, they found that
the tape had mysteriously changed target numbers! The re-entry vehicle
was then taken from the silo and brought back to the base. Eventually the
entire missile was changed.

(Source: Original: A Strange Harvest; reprinted in Clear Intent, 28).

THE NIGHT NORAD WENT ON TOP ALERTLate October 1975 Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado By Francis L. Ridge

This updated paper was originally printed in the MUFON UFO JOURNAL,
issue number 192, February 1984. The incident reportedly occurred in 1975.
Several years ago when I first heard of the "mysterious helicopter overflights"
of several key U. S. Air Force SAC bases, I treated the whole matter very
lightly. I didn't think it was a UFO matter. In 1983 I received over 400
pages of FOIA documents from the Fund For UFO Research and read the pages
concerning those overflights and found to my surprise that the word helicopter
wasn't used that much. Also, the descriptions of the objects and their
maneuvers sounded like the UFOs I had been investigating and researching
since 1960. Later on in the documents the word helicopters becomes UFOs.

In 1983 I was the sole guest of radio station WGBF in Evansville, Indiana,
for a two hour call-in type talk show program. During that show an anonymous
caller reported a very interesting report, a somewhat sinister event that
allegedly took place at NORAD, the North American Air Defense Command,
at about the same time as those overflights. The moderator and I asked
the man to contact me later to document what he had reported. According
to this man, it was a full-scale Security Option 5 Alert, and UFOs and
investigators from the "Air Force UFO division" were part of the picture.
I also obtained some information about the codes used in the 25 pages of
data I had in my personal possession on those overflights. And it is obvious
that there is more that is being withheld. The pages we have on the overflights
are incomplete reports, most of the follow-up data is missing. The reams
of pages to the actual reports and all the subsequent comments are still
withheld. The pages that we have represent only communication from computer
to computer or operator to operator. In other words, the initial filing
only. According to my source who served in Air Force security at NORAD,
the documents merely say, "I'm making a report. It's up to you to make
your report, etc."

NORAD is the National Combat Operations Center (or was at the time of
the incident) and is based at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. The Command
Post is located deep inside the mountain and supposedly can withstand a
10-megaton direct direct hit. UFOs raise quite a bit of havoc when sighted
by military people and detected on radar near any sensitive military installation,
but especially at Cheyenne Mountain. When bonified UFOs violate airspace
over NORAD's Command Post, there should be serious concern.

In late October 1975, evidently there was enough concern to go into
a Security Option 5 Alert. According to our informant, nobody was allowed
to enter the base, except cleared, high-ranking officers or cleared security
patrols. No one was to leave. Those personnel on base who had just completed
duty were rolled out of bed. Jet interceptors were scrambled into the air.
In fact, everything they put in the air during an attack on the U.S. was
airborne.

The men had worked the third shift of duty at NORAD and came off about
eight in the morning. Everybody in the group of approximately nine or ten
men went home, got their hunting and camping gear together and met at the
home of one of the guys. They then took off for one of their routine hunting
trips, one of the things they liked to do together. One of the fellows
who was supposed to go, wound up on radar duty, a circumstance that later
proved valuable as evidence for what happened at the Mountain that day.
Another man in the group later became an airline pilot for United Airlines
and a couple of years later secured some information about an airline case
that occurred the same evening as their alert. United had filed a UFO report
with the Air Force!

To start off, my informant told me, "We weren't drunk!" He said that
they had been hunting all day and they had sat down and ate a late dinner
near a warm cozy fire and were getting ready to turn in. One of the guys
thought he saw a shooting star. There appeared to be some unusual animal
activity/noise for about 15 minutes. It was late, between 10 PM and midnight.
One of the other fellows said, "Well, there's two of them!" So, they stopped,
kindled the fire down and eventually put it out completely. What they then
saw were three distinctly different lights (not on one object, but separate)
moving to a point to where they blurred across the horizon and then they
would stop, move back in the opposite direction and then move away from
them to a point where they almost couldn't see them anymore. Then the lights
would move again. "We were thinking our eyes were playing tricks on us
until they lined up almost abreast of each other and proceeded directly
toward the Mountain," continues Mr. E (as I shall call him). Right after
this (approximately 6 to 8 minutes later) they heard the buzzers go and
the Mountain went on alert! At this point they, themselves, scrambled,
got their gear packed up quickly and headed for the Mountain and their
posts. They had been on leave 10 to 12 hours but were still on call, attached
to the security of the Mountain, except for the pilot. So they hustled
back as their orders dictated. From the campsite to the Mountain was a
drive of about 45 minutes to an hour, and they drove there in a hurry,
entering the gate at 0210. They showed their passes and were admitted (only
because they were part of the bases's security). They were not given a
chance to change clothes and were still in their hunting gear. They grabbed
their weapons and went to their assigned posts and stayed on alert until
0600, when the alert was "stepped down".

Later, the fellow who had been on radar duty reported he had tracked
UFOs for a good 20 minutes. Two or three days later, they were altogether
again and they asked him if he had tracked anything on his radar, and he
said he had. He reported that it was "weird" and proceeded to describe
it to them, word for word, what they had also seen visually. At first it
was very erratic (the movement of the first UFO as stated by Mr. E). Mr.
E. stated to me later that there appeared to be trails behind the objects
at the time. The description sounds as if it could have been "persistence
of vision" where a lighted object appears to leave a fading image behind
it as it moves quickly across a dark background. A couple of days later,
one of the group mentioned to someone that they had seen some lighted objects
right before the alert.

Some of the men in the group started checking into the records as to
the reason for the scramble and security alert and found that nothing had
been filed. They then started asking around to see if they could find something,
anything, to explain the occurrence at the base. It was then that the AF
"UFO people" showed up. Mr. E. referred to the investigators as the Air
Force UFO division, "whatever they were called---came out to talk to us."
They interviewed the group (and who else at NORAD?) one by one and everybody's
story matched, even the radar operator's, where the UT's (Uncorrelated
Targets) maneuvered for over 20 minutes. He filed a report with the AF
investigators. He was told to ignore it and continue about his business,
not to worry about it. The group was ordered at that time not to mention
the incident. "As long as we were in uniform, we were not to discuss it
with anyone other than military personnel with an official need-to-know
and the fellows from the Air Force investigating team that came out to
talk to us." They told the group that they had seen navigational lights
or landing lights. Mr. E stated his group had all been in Viet Nam and
were familiar with navigation lights. They had seen night fighters working,
taking off and landing many times. They were told by the investigators
that their report could not be taken seriously since they couldn't describe
a shape or color, other than white, like a shooting star. It would appear
that the Air Force was very glad that that is all the men could report.
We knew that nocturnal lights can be important evidence, especially in
conjunction with other better-quality reports and radar cases as backup
evidence. It is also strange that the men were asked not to relate their
stories to anyone "outside". They were told that incident fell under a
document which Mr. E thought sounded like a document I was aware of, like
Publication 6, Vol. 5. I am aware of it, but do not as yet have a copy.
However, I am told that it is a CIRVIS document (Communications Instructions
for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings) and therefore falls under the
Communications Act of 1934 with severe penalties or fines attached to it.
Also, Mr. E kept saying that "They played it off like it wasn't anything."
Yet, a Security Option 5 Alert is very serious, indeed. The overflight
documents (the ones we were allowed to see, that is) mention a Security
Option 3 being exercised, with UFOs showing "clear intent" near a weapon
storage area. When some of the group tried to check the records, they could
find no evidence of an alert. "We couldn't find anything in the records
that were available to us." said Mr. E. "Now, we didn't try to get into
clearance areas, but the records that were available to us were primarily
security records." Even the files of the radar man of the group were devoid
of any mention of any alert. It appeared that all material relating to
the event had been pulled! Within about sixty days, everyone in the group
received a written reprimand for drinking on duty, which none of them had
done. In fact, they weren't even on duty at the time of the sighting.

The men were reportedly not abused or mistreated. Nor were there any
stripes pulled or were any of the men "passed over" by their superiors.
They simply received a written reprimand, which came "out of nowhere",
dated the same day as the sightings," a copy of which was placed in their
201 file. The radar man, who was still in the Air Force when I investigated
this incident, according to my informant received the letter mentioning
drinking on duty and dereliction of duty. He was the only one who lost
a promotion about six months later, simply because this was on his record.

In the overflight documents there is one page that states, and I quote,
"3) HQ USAF/DADF also forwarded a copy of a NORAD document for a review
for possible downgrade and release. We have determined the document is
properly and currently classified and is exempt from disclosure under Public
Law 90-23, 5 USC 552b(1)." This was signed by Col. Terrence C. James, USAF,
Director of Administration. There is another page that mentions a "security
camper team at K-4 reporting a UFO with white lights" at. 0635Z (11:35
PM local). But this one was at Malmstrom AFB, Montana, on 8 Nov. Something
very strange was going on in the late fall of 1975. Going on the assumption
that UFOs are real and there is a reason for everything, I thought about
this series of events as I watched and worried about two sons in the military
during the Gulf War. What we were doing was in response to a threat we
perceived. Waves of flights and a few crashes. Were WE (U.S. or Soviets)
doing something that caused the overflights of 1975? It is my opinion that
we were. How many years will it take before we find out? It took over 30
years to find out how close the super powers were to nuclear annihilation
in the early 1950's, a period of intense UFO scrutiny. And even earlier
than that, two years after we dropped two atomic bombs on mostly civilians,
we were testing rockets that (to outside observers) could deliver them
from afar. Within a six week period there were over 1,000 sightings (50%
were daylight discs) and the reported crash at Roswell.